STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Get ready for a slice of small town USA when the City of Bellevue celebrates a hundred years of Labor Day festivities.
This year’s Labor Day Parade will be held on Main Street at noon Monday, Sept. 1, and entries are welcomed the day of the parade.
There also will be two days of live music and other activities in Bellevue Memorial Park on Sunday, Aug. 31, and Monday, Sept. 1.
This year’s parade marshals are Shaun and Stefany Mahoney, who have been plying Bellevue residents with Juicy Lucy burgers at Mahoney’s Grill for two decades. The couple also supplied the community with live music every Thursday nights, bringing in country crooner from as far away as Texas, until Shaun had a stroke a couple years ago.
Shaun has served for years on the Bellevue City Council and Stefany used to work with the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber of Commerce. The couple also has been heavily involved in organizing Bellevue Labor Day activities.
They will be joined by such parade entries as the Bellevue and Hailey libraries’ float themed “Books are a Blast!”
As late as the early 2000s, the Bellevue Labor Day celebration revolved around a free pit roasted beef barbecue with corn on the cob. Today’s attendees will find their sustenance at food trucks featuring Mexican food and hamburgers.
There’ll be live music from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday and Monday and craft vendors, as well. And a block away the Bellevue Historical Museum, will hold court from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., allowing people to visit the old city jail, which dates back to 1881, an old mining cabin and a variety of exhibits, which include a turn-of-the-century wedding dress.
Sunday’s lineup includes the Hurdy Gurdy Girls, Grupo Tremendos, the Andrew Sheppard Band and Tweener—Loon Cricket.
Monday’s lineup includes The Kim Stocking Band with its mix of country folk, Spike Coggins and The Accused, That Johnny V Band Thing and Tweener—Work in Progress.